TSMC planning to double its 16nmFF+ chip production capacity

Word is going around that TSMC is planning to double its 16nm wafer production from 40,000 per month to 80,000 per month. A portion of these will likely be used to manufacture NVIDIA's upcoming Pascal GPUs.

While this number may still be slightly depressed due to the earthquake, it does mean TSMC is taking in more 16nm orders and is able to supply them. Nvidia is relying on TSMC to supply them with 16nmFF+ GPUs for use with Pascal which is set to launch later this year. A ramp up now would mean the a mid-2016 launch for the earliest Pascal chips, right in line with rumours. For AMD, TSMC will play a lesser role as Polaris may be using GlobalFoundries 14nmLPP exclusively.